The Georgetown Resident Assistant Coalition (GRAC), a group of Georgetown University resident assistants (RAs) negotiating for better RA working conditions, received enough votes to become a union following an April 16 election held in collaboration with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The majority of RAs who voted — 79 of the 82 voting RAs, or 96% — voted in favor of union representation by Local 153 of the Office of Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), a parent union supporting many university employees. If there are no objections to the election after seven days, the NLRB will certify the results, which will allow OPEIU to bargain with the university on RAs’ behalf for new terms and conditions of RAs’ employment.
RA and GRAC organizer Ulises Olea Tapia (SFS ’25) said RAs have formed the first undergraduate union at Georgetown and in Washington, D.C.
“Today the RAs of Georgetown made history and that just has everyone extremely, extremely happy,” Olea Tapia told The Hoya. “It is a show of democracy. It’s a show of camaraderie. It is a show that really impersonates this idea of worker solidarity and of us being able to show up for our coworkers and the larger Georgetown community.”
A coalition of RAs first announced their intentions to unionize in a letter to Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) March 22, citing grievances with the university such as arbitrary dismissal, insufficient compensation and a lack of mental health resources from the Office of Residential Living, which governs student housing and employs RAs.
While the university refused to voluntarily grant the RAs union status March 27, Vice President of Student Affairs Eleanor J.B. Daugherty said the university will respect the results of the election, which took place in McShain Large Lounge in McCarthy Hall.
“We appreciate the participation of all RAs who cast ballots in this election, and we respect the result,” Daugherty wrote shortly after the April 16 election in an email to RAs, which a university spokesperson sent to The Hoya. “We are encouraged that many RAs made their voices heard.”
“When the NLRB’s certification is finalized, we will assemble the appropriate team to work in good faith with OPEIU to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement,” Daugherty added.
Sam Lovell (CAS ’25), an RA and GRAC organizer, said the successful unionization efforts reflect long-term advocacy by Georgetown RAs.
“I don’t think words can describe how awesome this moment feels,” Lovell told The Hoya. “GRAC has only existed for about two months, but the movement long precedes us, and so this has really been a combination of a lot of different emotions and experiences, and I think it’s safe to say that we’re all feeling really, really great and looking forward to negotiating a new contract that serves the interest of every RA.”
Lovell said RAs’ unionization will show student workers at Georgetown and other campuses that unionization is an option.
“I’m super excited for what this movement means not only for RAs on our campus, but also RAs at other campuses and undergraduate workers at Georgetown,” Lovell said. “If you’re a student worker at Georgetown who’s an undergraduate, who’s had a negative experience, this should send the signal that unionizing is a viable alternative.”
Lovell said he expects RAs to be in negotiations with the university by August.
Scott Williams, an organizer with OPEIU, said the RA union will begin surveying members to prepare to collectively bargain with the university.
“What are the policies that they want to improve? How do they want to make this?” Williams told The Hoya. “We’ll be working on electing a bargaining committee and that bargaining committee will be members who are elected to represent all RAs and work on creating policies and negotiating those policies with the university.”
Daugherty said next steps would include a collective bargaining agreement between the union and the university.
“While there is no way to predict the length of negotiations, the process of negotiating a first collective bargaining agreement generally takes approximately a year, and sometimes more,” Daugherty wrote in an April 10 email to RAs.
RA Tessa Smiley (CAS ’25) said they appreciated the university’s fairness in the RA unionization process.
“We’re very thankful for the cooperation from the university ensuring that we had a fair election tonight,” Smiley told The Hoya. “They didn’t engage in any sort of union busting.”
Elise Merchant (CAS ’25) said RAs’ unionization will allow them to better support their residents.
“An RA who is more supported in this university space is only going to be able to better cater to their residents and their needs, so I think it’s serving the greater student body in such a positive way,” Merchant told The Hoya.
Nico Reyes (CAS ’24), another RA, said the entire Georgetown community, including community directors (CDs), who serve as RAs’ supervisors, will benefit from the results of the April 16 election.
“I think it’s a great day for people that think that college needs to be more affordable, more accessible,” Reyes told The Hoya. “I think it’s a great day for the CDs that do great work and work hard to care about the community, because we’re going to use our position to elevate them as well. There were no losers today.”
Merchant said she will always remember walking into McShain Large Lounge and seeing the ballot box.
“For it to be actualized, to come in person and vote in McShain, where we do our RA trainings, I’m always gonna remember that,” Merchant said. “RAs who are here next year, they’re not gonna understand that this is where we had an election. This is where we’ve created a union where now we can have actual negotiations with the university.”
